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I decided to do it on Queen as I wanted to do something that celebrated their music whilst being able to go into them as individual musicians. With this I can go into albums, live performances and more since it’s a broad topic. Queen are, to put it simply, incredibly special to me and I’m extremely passionate about them. They have always interested me, even when I was younger and I heard them on the radio I was intrigued to learn more about them, and the more I learned the more obsessed I became. There seems to be a universal love for Queen, they’re national treasures that have one of the most beloved and fascinating songs of all time: Bohemian Rhapsody. But even ignoring their major hits and looking at their more unknown albums and songs you know their not your average rock band, with songs about ‘Fairy kings’ and premature ejaculation to rockabilly love songs, Queen have it all.

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When it came to this assignment there were a few areas I considered, I was interested in doing it on the book ‘Lolita’, specifically exploring the character of ‘Humbert Humbert’. I love the book and find it very interesting despite how disturbing it is, but decided against it, although I find it interesting I didn’t think I could create a worthy analysis for such a troubled and pitiful character. Another topic was film, broad I know, but that was my problem - I couldn’t find a specific topic on film, I settled on one question then thought of another one. And of course Queen came to mind, I always wanted a reason to show off my Queen knowledge and thought this was the perfect time, all those hours researching them in my own time finally paying off. Since it’s a topic I’m already so familiar in I thought it was the best option for me.

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Queen formed in London in 1970, with bassist John Deacon joining a year later, before Queen Brian May and Roger Taylor were in a band called Smile, formed in ’68, with Tim Staffel as lead singer and bass guitarist. They were all students at the time, May studying astrophysics, Taylor studying dentistry, Deacon engineering and Mercury art.

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Many factors played into Queens success and originality, the main factor being - Freddie. Greatly considered to be the greatest frontman of all time Freddie’s talent mixed with his showmanship made him a legend. When people discuss Freddie its usually about his voice, not only did he have a vocal range spanning 4 octaves but his vibrato was 7.04 Hz, while a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz but most importantly, he knew how to use it. He showed emotion in his voice, and used it to tell a different story in each song. Freddie had a beautifully versatile voice with it fitting many different styles of music, and that worked perfectly with Queen's varying discography. His voice fit genres like hard rock in 'Sheer heart attack", to the operatic interlude in 'Bohemian rhapsody' and 'Innuendo' to love ballads like 'You take my breath away' he knew how to change his voice for each style, and managed to fit in them all perfectly. As well as a phenomenal voice he was also an excellent pianist, despite him thinking he was below average.

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"his phrasing was subtle, delicate and sweet or energetic and slamming. he was able to find the right colouring or expressive nuance for each word"
- Montserrat Caballé

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With a frontman like Freddie a lot of the time the other members of the band get overlooked, which they definitely shouldn't. Part of what made Queen unique was how different each member was, they were all incredibly intelligent and creative, and had varying styles of music. Brian May is known for his intricate solos, most of which he comes up with in his head before playing, and talent for finding accompaniments that fit songs well, and delivering them with great accuracy. He managed to perfectly combine classic and progressive rock, and managed to write many of the bands greatest hits such as 'We will rock you' and 'Tie your mother down'. He also composed a fair share of monumental songs, 'The prophets song' being one of his more mystical grand arrangements with some people calling it 'as fascinating as Bohemian Rhapsody'. Most of May's work is done on his homemade guitar 'The Red special' which he made with his father when he was sixteen out of an old fireplace. Brian also provided vocals for many songs, his voice has a warmth to it, and may not seem as impressive as Freddie's or Roger's but it fit his style perfectly and elevates his guitar work.

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You can't discuss Queen without mentioning their live performances, they understood what made a good show and used everything to their advantage. With bright lights, loud sound systems and extravagant costumes, Queen knew how to put on a show. This was proven at their iconic Live Aid performance in 1985, which was voted the greatest live performance in the history of rock in a 2005 industry poll, huge acts such as David Bowie, Elton John and The Who also performed but it was Queen who stole the show. Taylor revealed in a 1999 interview that their engineer had also tweaked the stadium’s sound-system settings so that, “we were louder than anyone else.”

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"we were very aware as entertainers that the shape of the show is vitally important, a lot of people have no concept of this but you cant just put songs together and expect the whole thing to work you have to have the shape to maximise your impact"
- Brian May discussing Wembley Stadium weekend, '86

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During Queens set Freddie played with the audience in a singalong, the last sustained noted being marked "the note heard around the world"

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"It was the perfect stage for Freddie: the whole world."
- Bob Geldof on Queen at Live Aid, '85

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Queen in their early days

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Bassist John Deacon is considered Queens 'secret weapon' being very shy and reserved he was thought to be perfect in the band as he would 'avoid arguments'. Deacons work is usually the most overlooked, despite him writing number one hits such as 'Another one bites the dust' and 'I want to break free'. He is an incredibly talented bass player who invented his own amp called the 'Deacy amp'. John definitely brought a different sound to Queen, he avoided rock songs and would write more upbeat funky songs instead, and liked the use of synthesisers - much to the displeasure of Brian. Deacon was the only member that didn't sing on any records, and despite being the least known of the group is actually one of the most underrated bass players of all time. His subtle yet impactful melodic style gives their songs a little extra flare. After Freddie's death John felt he couldn't continue playing with Queen without him and disbanded the band after their release of 'No one but you (Only the good die young)' in 1997 following Freddie's death in 1991.

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"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice."
- Justin Hawkins on Brian May's guitar style

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"He's a great bass player, I think much better than people realize. He's very inventive and very lyrical, but also very funky."
- Brian May about John Deacon

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Brians song 'Some day One day' was released on their second album Queen II in '74. This song perfectly captures the beauty and warmth in his voice.

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Opening ascending riff to 1974s 'Ogre battle'

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Deacons solo in 'Liar' performed live at the Rainbow '74. This was his most substantial solo he ever performed live.

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Roger Taylor joined 'smile' after May put up an ad asking for a 'Ginger Baker' type drummer, May was impressed when he saw Roger set up and tune his drums - something a most drummers can't do themselves. Taylor's big sound fit Queen perfectly, 'sounding as though it were in a room and you were hearing the reverberation from the walls'. Taylor was also another talented writer (he wrote 'Radio ga ga' and 'These are the days of our lives') but many songs he wrote he also sang, such as 'Drowse' and 'I'm in love with my car'. His singing voice is also very impressive, being well known for his falsetto vocal range, and actually had a 4-octave range. The band used his voice for higher harmonies in songs such as 'Bohemian rhapsody' and 'Lap of the Gods'. Taylor admits himself that he's not the most talented or skilled drummer, but his massive sound and big flashy kit was perfect for the band. He has a unique style and would have an "accidental” opening of the hi-hat during the weak beat, which gives him a punchier sound than most other drummers, he keeps his sound simple with no unnecessary drum solos and gave the songs exactly what they needed.

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Lap of the God's from their 1974 show 'Live at the Rainbow' where Roger shows off his falsetto range

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Roger Taylor's drum solo in their first single 'Keep yourself alive' released in 1973.

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In 1999, Roger Taylor became the first living person, other than members of the British Royal Family, to appear on a Royal Mail stamp, as he was seen behind Freddie Mercury as part of a 'Great Britons' issue.

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Queen was and still is incredibly influential and did things no one was doing. Most notably, they pretty much invented music videos, most bands at the time had 'promo videos' that would be shown to promote their songs but nothing like the video for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' had been seen before. They also had their now iconic music video for 'I want to break free' banned from airing on MTV since they were in drag, which at the time was extremely shocking. With epic harmonies and fascinating lyrics its not surprising that they have the best selling album in the UK - 'Queens greatest hits' and In 2012, the song topped a poll in the UK to find "The Nation's Favourite Number One" over 60 years of music, as well as being inducted in the Grammy hall of fame in 2004. Its impossible to fit in all of Queens achievements and accolades, they've influenced musicians from all genres such as Metallica, Nirvana, George Michael etc.

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In their later years they continued recording music all the way up to Freddie death, whilst Freddie was sick all he wanted to do was make music there were days where he could barely stand but he still went to record songs. Their last album featuring Freddie was 'Made in Heaven' released 4 years after his death in 1995. It was constructed of Mercury's final recordings and featured 'Mother love'. Mercury hid his AIDs diagnosis and it wasn't until after his death it was publicly confirmed he had it. His death is important in AIDs/LGBT history as he was the first big star to die of it, after his death the remaining members set up the Mercury Phoenix trust and organised the 'Freddie Mercury tribute concert in awareness of AIDs which took place on the 20th April 1992, it featured huge rock stars such as Bowie and Robert Plant.

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Michael Jackson cited their 1982 album 'Hot space' as an influence on his album 'Thriller'

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Queen in 1998

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Cool cat, written by John and Freddie, was released on their '82 album 'Hot space'. When it was first released it got a lot of negative reviews because of their new sound full of synthesizers, it embraced disco and dance music and is considered their most 'artistically disappointing album' despite it getting a lot of praise in more recent years for being ahead of it's time.

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Mother love was released on 'Made in Heaven' in 1995 their last album featuring Freddie. Whilst recording this song Freddie said he "wasn't feeling that great" and stated "I will finish it when I come back next time", but his condition got worse and he passed on November 24th 1991. Brian provided vocals for the rest of the song. At the end you can hear a snippet of Freddie's vocal improvisation from Wembley '86, a snippet from every Queen song, put together then sped through a tape machine, a sample of Freddie's cover of 'Goin' back' which he released under the pseudonym 'Larry Lurex' in 1972 and at the very end there's a baby crying.

This is the last vocal recording of Freddie Mercury.

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Videos used:
The secrets behind Freddie Mercury's legendary voice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3MjsrMNCbU
Some day one day - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6grozh4ZGsI
Ogre battle live at Hammersmith - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=551gRH3dGEE
Wembley documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u2ZkqHj_uE
Live Aid footage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkbP5OPQhdQ
Liar live at the rainbow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT1bB6cKn4w
Keep yourself alive music video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JofwEB9g1zg
Lap of the Gods live at the rainbow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmrj5nTMOc
Cool cat lyric video  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kToCuYfkGI4
Mother love lyric video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rSJbkZOvo0

Infomation:
https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/04/new-scientific-study-confirms-the-audience-freddie-mercury-had-an-unparalleled-singing-voice/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacy_Amp
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/barcelona-mercury-caballe/
https://purpleclover.littlethings.com/entertainment/7979-freddie-mercury/item/photo-freddie-mercury
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/queen-live-aid-concert-performance/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_(Queen_song)
http://www.ronaldshannonjackson.com/what-made-queen-so-popular/
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-John-Deacon-rarely-ever-mentioned-as-one-of-the-top-rock-and-roll-bassists-of-all-time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Space#Legacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Love_(Queen_song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqMx-Jaris&list=PL9uQsz_q3DAjp4_gbRnmupsXoHkBWmLZo&index=34&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km0jbxHRGnY&t=996s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqMx-Jaris&list=PL9uQsz_q3DAjp4_gbRnmupsXoHkBWmLZo&index=33
Queen: the early years by Mark Hodkinson

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Regardless of what they might think personally about Queen, most rock critics and music fans alike recognize the immense vocal talent that was the great Freddie Mercury. Still, in case there was ever any doubt, new analysis of both Mercury's singing and speaking voices has shed fresh light on just how special his pipes really were.

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers conducted the research, the results of which were published on Friday in Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology (via AlphaGalileo). While they couldn't confirm the long-held belief that Mercury's range spanned four full octaves, they did discover some interesting tidbits about the expanse of his voice. For one, despite being known largely as a tenor, he was more likely a baritone. They based this assumption off analysis of six interviews that revealed a median speaking fundamental frequency of 117.3 Hz. That, coupled with anecdotal evidence that Mercury once turned down an opera duet because he was afraid fans wouldn't recognize his baritone voice, led the conclusion that the singer was talented enough to jump out of his base range.

It's true that without a living test subject, the researchers' conclusions are largely unconformable. To get closer to the truth, however, the team brought in professional rock singer Daniel Zangger-Borch to imitate Mercury's voice. They filmed his larynx at 4,000 frames per second in order to look at exactly how the Queen frontman created those iconic rough growls and jaw-dropping vibratos. What they discovered was that he likely employed subharmonics, a singing style where the ventricular folds vibrate along with the vocal folds. Most humans never speak or sing with their ventricular folds unless they're Tuvan throat singers, so the fact that this popular rock vocalist was probably dealing with subharmonics is pretty incredible.

What's more, Mercury's vocal cords just moved faster than other people's. While a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz, Mercury's was 7.04 Hz. To look at that in a more scientific way, a perfect sine wave for vibrato assumes the value of 1, which is pretty close to where famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti sat. Mercury, on the other hand, averaged a value of 0.57, meaning he was vibrating something in his throat even Pavarotti couldn't move.

There's a lot of scientific and analytical music terminology in the full study (which can be read here), but the conclusion was clear from the beginning: Freddie Mercury had a voice unlike anyone else in rock 'n' roll, and that led to one of the most unique singers and stage performers of all time.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding:

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New scientific study confirms the obvious: Freddie Mercury had an unparalleled singing voice

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Regardless of what they might think personally about Queen, most rock critics and music fans alike recognize the immense vocal talent that was the great Freddie Mercury. Still, in case there was ever any doubt, new analysis of both Mercury's singing and speaking voices has shed fresh light on just how special his pipes really were.

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Brian and Roger still perform today as Queen + Adam Lambert but John left Queen after Freddie's death and now isn't in the spotlight at all. Brian and Roger claim they don't have any with him anymore.